Character Creation

There are two kinds of characters on Tharsult. The first and most common type of character we will call a Secondary Character and the slightly more rare type of character we will call a Primary Character. Before explaining the difference between these types of character I need to stop and make a note on the scale of power in Toril.

The vast bulk of people in the world are level zero commoners. Even a level one character is a pretty badass guy compared to all the people around him. A boy goes off to war and comes home as a level one fighter. Just a level one fighter. A level two or three fighter by comparison is one of the most elite soliders in a whole kingdoms army. A level five or six character is certainly a local hero and probably known on a regional or maybe even a national level.

Rules for Secondary Characters

1 - You may have as many Secondary Characters as you want, but you may not play characters who know one another nor can any of your characters be related to one another.

2 - All Secondary Characters must come from the plane of Toril. You may make a Faerunian or a Zakharan or a Maztican or even someone from far off Kara Tur but you must be from the world where this game is set.

3 - All secondary characters are commoners, as are the characters parents. This applies to characters from primitive cultures too, so no sons of the tribal chieftain just like no children of lords or dukes.

4 - All Secondary Characters are 'normal' members of their race and have colorings to match. They do not have tails or glowing eyes or anything unusual for a member of their race to have. You may use the color editing files to sharpen up your look but you still are expected to have natural human hair colors for your human and to stick to normal sane colorings for the other races too and avoid things like bright pink or electric blue hair. (There is one exception to this, footnote #2)

5 - Secondary Characters may not be Warlocks or Favored Souls. Dinosaur Druids are restricted, and may only be taken by Secondary Characters who meet certain requirements mentioned below (Footnote #1)

5 - All secondary characters are level three, minus any ECL they may have for their race. This means a human Secondary Character will be level three, Planetouched Secondary Characters like Genasi or Teiflings will be level two and the more luxury character races like Drow and Yuan Ti will only be level one.

6 - All Secondary Characters should have at least a basic story worked out for them before entering game. Even a level one Fighter is a young man that has been in a few fights, and a level three character should have some sort of story beyond being fresh off the farm.

As long as you are respecting these rules you can feel free to log in and make a Secondary Character any time you want, with no need for help from a DM or anyone else. If you want something not covered by the rules you have just read you will want to apply to the DM team for a Primary Character

Rules for Primary Characters

A primary character is someone much more special than even the elite soldiers that I compared to Secondary Characters. They may be special because they are an unusual race that is hardly ever seen, or they may just be one of the most outstanding fighters in the whole kingdom.

You should think of having a primary character in much the same way as other servers have a 'UBR' or a 'Special Application Only' type character. I know that leads a lot of people to think the admin are playing favorites allowing some people special characters and not others. I agree with this sentiment and I certainly do not want to become one of the DMs who play favorites with appovals, so I have taken this step to stop things from turning that way.

We consider each player to be entitled to one and only one Primary Character. We do not reserve it for just the people we know and already like, the DM and staff here consider it everyones right to have one special snowflake character if they desire. As long as you are willing to work with DMs on making your story fit the setting and open to making adjustments you can pretty much expect to get your idea to get approved.

Primary Characters start at a base of level six, but that number may be adjusted depending on just how strange or unique of a character you want.

Your Primary character will have their ECL deducted from their awarded level, so Genasi or Teiflings will be level five and Drow will be level four for example. These races come with advantages that make them equal to higher level characters, that in fact is what ECL means.

You may also give up a level or more to be a rare race that is not normally open to players at all. Perhaps you want to play a goblin from Zakhara, or a Cat Girl or a dryad tied to one of the islands trees. These things are possible as long as the race is available in the game for us to change your appearance, and it is not too powerful for the scope of our game... and if you can make a sensible story for why one would be here on the island.

If you want some truly outstanding and rare mutation from the norm for your race you may give up a level for that on your Primary Character too. A Teifling with more demon blood than most and thus has a tail? Or a third eye. Or alternate genitalia for your gender or even both sets on one character. These strange things are possible if you are willing to give up a level for them and if you can work with the DM team to make a sensible story for why the character should be here on the island

You may apply for a noble character with a title if you like, but rather than charge a level I require the character to give up one of their feats for the Leadership feat. At the levels the server is set at, giving up one of your feats is a pretty big loss. Characters wanting to come from very high rungs of society will be asked to give up a second feat, and it will be one of the juicy 'level one only' feats. But if you really want to be the son of one of the Dukes of Baldurs Gate or something similar, such a character is possible here. There is even the possibility of being a local noble and having a hand in the IC rulership of the island. Please note that you have to be at least level six to take that feat so if you give up a few levels to play something really off the wall you will not also be making your super strange character a noble.

Your Primary Character may come from another world beyond Toril, but this will also cost a level and maybe even a feat to show their exotic origins.

Warlocks are allowed for Primary Characters, but unlimited spells is very near unbalancing on this server so the only Warlocks that can expect approval will be multiclassed with just a few levels of Warlock.

The Favored Soul class is allowed but you must understand this is the rarest approval of all. This character type is literally a specific gods favorite person in this world. They get their Cleric spells without years of devoted study in temples, and can expect guidance and sometimes even outright help from the DM in the role of their god or goddess. The Favored Soul class is a rare gem of a person, like Perseus or Joan of Arc. For this reason there will never be more than four of them approved at any time on the server. The first three of those approvals will be reserved for the three gods who dominate the island itself, and offered to players on a first come first served basis. The fourth of those approvals will be open for a Favored Soul of any god, and also offered on a first come first served basis.

Dinosaur Druids are allowed as Primary Characters but they must meet some specific requirements to enter play (Footnote #1)

If I have not covered something that you want to play, feel free to send me a PM and ask. I am going to try to be open minded about any character I think will fit the flavor of the setting.

A free character that comes from one the worlds cultures that has lots more interaction with Tharsult than other nations may be awarded a bonus level. This is called a 'Cultural Relevance Bonus' In order to qualify for this bonus level your character must not only come from one of the nations that contribute many of the immigrants to the island but must also be a member of one of that groups dominant races. Your submitted story must also show your connection to that culture and show us DMs that you have a good grasp of understanding how to RP someone from that region. I will list the nations and races that qualify below

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Amn - Human and Halflings

Waterdeep - Humans, Half Elves, Teiflings and Aasimar and Halflings

The Moonshaes - Human, Earth Genasi and Water Genasi and Halflings

Lantan - Gnomes

Baldurs Gate - Human and Half Elves

Calimshan - Humans Halflings Air Genasi and Fire Genasi

Halruaa - Humans (All Halruaans, both Secondary and Primary Characters must have at least one level of Wizard)

Shou Lung - Human

Kozakura - Human

Chult - Human and Earth Genasi

Dambrath - Human Drow Half drow and Teifling

Zakhara - Human and any Genasi

Now obviously this is not a list of all the races in each place, for example you may make a half orc from Waterdeep and that is perfectly acceptable to the setting and you may make an Earth Genasi from Calimshan but those things are not the normal for their homelands and while I will approve the character for play I will not award it a bonus level for being culturally relevant.

Please do not fret too much over this, remember you are here to Role Play and not powergame the best character anyway. So play the background for the character you want, but if you are up in the air on what you play I hope the CRB influences players to be a little more normal than not with their Primary Characters.

That is all for now, do not forget to check the footnotes below.

LFM

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Footnote #1. Dinosaur Druids. If you want to play a Dinosaur Druid as a Secondary Character you must be from Chult, and your first level must be any class other than Druid. After you are in game and you have gotten your Chultan Passport you may take your remaining levels as a Druid and take Dinosaur Druid as your level three feat and the character will be allowed in game. These same rules apply to Primary characters as well but a non Chultan native may also be approved in that case, so long as the characters story includes some time in Chult where the dinosaur taming skills were learned. The Natural Bond feat is not allowed on either Secondary or Primary Character Dinosaur Druids.

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Footnote #2 Halruaan Characters. Halruaa has a super magically advanced people and culture. If your character has a Halruaan Passport they may ignore the rules requiring you to have natural colored hair and may feel free to chose bright pink or electric blue hair or any other strange shade. This does not extend to weird colored skin, but the magical coloring of hair is considered normal fashion in this hyper magical culture.